In printing, a representation of a folio value may appear on the printed page and folio values for adjacent pages typically observe a sequence scheme. In a book, for example, cover pages typically will not have a folio value. However, other pages of the book may have folio values to facilitate quick page referencing. Different sections may use different folio schemes to distinguish the sections and further facilitate quick reference.
During print production, a document may be received as a single file or as multiple files where a file can include content for one or more pages. Files may be received in an order corresponding to the reader order of the document or they may be received in some other order. Similarly, page ordering within a file may correspond with reader ordering or it may correspond with some other ordering. For example, pages may be reverse reader ordered or have an order with no apparent scheme or a document may contain different versions of one or more pages so that a document can be customized for different audiences.
In some situations, an explicit ordering of a set of pages can be established which may correspond with received file/page ordering or some other ordering information. Ordering information can be determined through a variety of methods. One exemplary method can include reading meta-data identifying one or more page orderings. For example, meta-data can be included in one of the files providing page content or can be included in a separate file or in other associated data. Another exemplary method can include reading an ordering scheme encoded in file attributes (e.g. file name). As another example, a user can manually determine an order based on information (e.g. document structure) from the provider of the files and information derived from the files (e.g. filenames, number of pages).
It is common for print production tools to process pages of a document in a sequence. So establishing an ordered set of pages is a prerequisite for many tools. For example, imposition software may require a reader ordering so that layouts can be produced. Raster image processing software may also render pages in a page-wise fashion for proofing based on reader order or some other order.
To reduce complexity, prior art print production tools have used simple techniques for ordering sets of pages. One exemplary technique has been to index the pages using a simple ordinal scheme. Another exemplary technique has been to link pages together in a list. These techniques are suitable for situations which only require reference to a page by its position in the entire page set. FIG. 1 illustrates a GUI for an exemplary prior art imposition tool which allows an operator to manually establish an indexed, ordered page set based on a set of input files so that the pages can be assigned to a generic signature layout based on their indices. Another example includes a system described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,016,068 (Gnocato et al.), which is commonly-assigned and whose contents are included by reference herein.
However, in some situations, it is preferable to reference a page or sequence of pages by folio value. For example, a printer may want to produce layouts by section so that different versions of a section can be easily substituted. As another example, a printer may want to proof certain pages of each section. With a simple ordering technique it can be difficult to locate the pages of interest or verify that pages are being used as intended (e.g. only one section's pages assigned to a layout).
Other problems can occur during print production that are not easily identified by the use of a simple page ordering technique. For example, the ordering of pages in a page set may be incorrect. This may occur, for example, by pages being received out of order, or through human error in creating filenames that imply order or an error in assigning pages to a position in a page set. This may also occur, for example, if the author supplies the wrong page content for a page (e.g. provides the same page twice).
Providing folio references to pages is one way of overcoming these problems since this allows a print production operator to reference pages using the same scheme intended by the author and corresponding to representations on a printed result. Some prior art tools provide a means to do this manually. For example, Adobe Acrobat®, provides a “Number Pages” function that allows one or more pages to be manually associated with a folio scheme. This can be a problem because of the time required, which can be considerable for a book or other large document. The manual approach is also subject to human error.
Thus, a need exists for an automated method for associating folio values with pages of an ordered page set to solve the problems discussed above.